Webmaster Tools New Blocked Resources Report for Crawling Issues

Webmasters use JavaScript, CSS and linked image in order to make their site function well and look good. However, if these features are blocked from crawling, then Google cannot see your site as a user would and it therefore cannot render your site properly.

Any linked images, CSS, or JavaScript files that are blocked from crawling will, therefore, cause problems for your website. But how do you know if you have these issues?

Before now, this would have been slightly more difficult to answer, but last week Google announced that Google Webmaster Tools now includes a Blocked Resources Report so you can easily find any of these issues and resolve them.

Google have said that the Blocked Resources Report “starts with the names of the hosts from which your site is using blocked resources such as JavaScript, CSS, and images”, then you can click on the rows for “the list of blocked resources and then the pages that embed them”, so that you can “diagnose and resolve” any problems.

Google also announced that they have updated Fetch and Render, which now shows you how the user sees your page alongside the usual screenshot of how Google sees it, so you can get a better idea of the issues causing Googlebot to see your site differently.

In terms of how to move forward with this information, Google recommend “starting with the resources that make the most important visual difference when blocked”.

If you would like more help and information regarding search marketing and your search marketing campaign, then talk to someone at Search Marketing Group today.